Remember when you were in high school and you just felt like taking it easy for once? Sleeping in class , living a normal life, but having this incredibly high energy, delusional but cute girl who just wouldn’t stop bothering you about aliens? No? Well if you’ve seen Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! You know just how awesome and wacky this kind of premise is, mixing just the right amount of cute and crazy, and becoming a staple in its subgenre among chuunibyou high school anime series.

After the series’ latest season ending in late 2014 (yes it’s been that long!), we figured you’d be missing those playful high school anime. That’s why we’ve made a list of 6 anime series to get you back into the shows where characters wish for the supernatural to come to life!

So join us as we dive right into the chuunibyou anime series that take you through the stages of “Why won’t she leave the main character alone?”, “I wish I was in a high school club”, “Why is this crazy girl so likeable?” and “Why am I not out fighting aliens and demons with cute girls right now!?”!

1. Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru (Oreshura)

Starting off with one of the closer related series, we have Ore no Kanojo to Osananajimi ga Shuraba Sugiru, or for short “Oreshura”. Here we meet Eita, similarly to Yuuta, he’s a young man who just began his first term in high school, leaving middle school and its “8th grader” embarrassments with it, or so he thinks. It doesn’t take long before he meets the beautiful transfer student Masuzu Natsukawa who has found out about his past, and forces him to pretend to date her to stop other guys from asking her out.

Oreshura offers a similar dynamic between the main characters to the one in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, where their innocent stories hinting at love are concealed by the silly antics only found in the relaxed club environments during high school afternoons. The series also involves a lot more backstory than Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! early on. With the main character having a pretty rough situation at home after being abandoned by his parents, as well as having the motivation to do whatever it takes to repay his caretaker by studying hard at school.

While Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! breaks off the characters’ antics with occasional silly drama, Oreshura features more harem and romantic themes to spice up the setting a notch, giving it a slightly more mature feeling. Needless to say, the series is a great alternative for someone who is looking for a slightly less superficial high school club anime, while still keeping the silly antics and lively relationships!

2. Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu (The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya)

Let’s rewind the tape a bit and go back to a more classically drawn anime as in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya! This critically acclaimed and hugely successful anime, shares a lot of similarities to Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!

As the story begins, the main character, Kyon, has given up on his belief in the supernatural. But when high school starts, he is placed next to the eccentric Haruhi Suzumiya, who introduces herself with “I have no interest in ordinary humans”. Being intrigued, Kyon starts to talk to Haruhi, despite her middle school classmates advising him not to. Not long after that, she is inspired to make a club known as “the SOS Brigade” with him, to investigate the supernatural.

One of the more interesting aspects of this anime compared to the others, is its different emphasis on tropes, and how the characters act a bit different to what we are used to now, after 2010. Kyon, the main character, is more of a calm and collected person who is neither ditzy nor clumsy. Although he gets dragged around like the main characters in the other anime mentioned, he doesn’t really seem to mind, and is more open to the antics that Haruhi is up to. This is evident by the thought narration by Kyon, which sort of sounds like an early take on the style of narration present in other anime series, such as Bakemonogatari.

The calm pacing and the different style of narration is what really sets The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya apart from the other picks in this list. With a lot of series in general being very high energy lately, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya is a great choice to just kick back and relax to. So if your energy got depleted after watching Rikka’s epic battles versus her sister Tooka in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, this one is definitely for you!

Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu 4 DVD PV

Aren’t there any series that actually feature supernatural beings!? Well, moving forward to our next pick, we take a look at Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl. The series features Makoto Niwa, a young high schooler who has to live at his aunt's place while his parents are staying overseas. When moving in, he meets a strange cousin he never knew he had, who claims to be an extraterrestrial life form.

Usually, more could be said about the plot in these kinds of series without spoiling too much, but Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl is a series that keeps you guessing along with the main character which we will let you do too! As in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!, the main character leaves his middle school life behind to start anew. However, it’s slightly different as Makoto never sported a shameful “8th grader syndrome”. He also doesn’t seem to believe in the supernatural, at least from the start.

Ground Control to Psychoelectric Girl is also a bit different from Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! in that it has a mystery feel to it and separates the antics from schools and clubs. Yet it keeps the dynamic of the two main characters between the two cousins and their antics. Well recommended for anyone that is looking for a series with more mystery!

What about an anime where they ACTUALLY have superpowers? Well we got you covered there too! When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace, is an anime which throws you right into the action without any explanations. Which is great for the ones who rather skip that long tedious setup for all the characters. Or perhaps for those who just don’t have the time to watch anime very often. The story starts with Jurai Andou, the only male in the literature club, who’s trying to convince all the girls in the club that he has a power surging from his hand. This works as a good jump start to show the relationships between all the characters. And sure enough, to everyone's surprise (even Jurai himself), dark flames start to emit from his hands shortly thereafter.

Eventually all the club members develop their own powers and their afternoon antics become somewhat different. “Somewhat” as in they don’t really change what they are doing, but now they look 10 times cooler. The series handles the, perhaps overpowered superpowers, in a nice way as the characters don’t chase a dream of changing the world like the common superhero stories. Here, they rather just play around with their powers amongst their friends.

Jurai is a lot more outgoing and eccentric than the other main characters on the list, and blends in more with his other chuunibyou clubmates, as he takes the spot of the “weird one” instead of the girl. So if you’re looking for some “same same, but different” action, this one is sure to please!

TV Anime 'Inou-Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de' PV 2

If you don’t have the time to binge watch an entire season or two, there are other options too! Aura: Koga Maryuin's Last War brought the “8th grader syndrome” and its chuunibyou themes onto the big screen. Ichirou Satou is a high school student sporting the same type of “8th grader” condition as Yuuta, and is asked by his teacher to take care of the strange and delusional Ryouko Satou, who walks into school wearing a mage costume. Ichirou, ashamed of being similar to her previously, turns down the teacher's request. But after seeing her getting bullied, he makes it his mission to free her from her “8th grader syndrome”, with the help of his alternate persona.

As there is only one movie connected to this world, it’s densely packed with love, action and drama, with no time for that filler fluff! And with that said, the story also features a more real and cruel world with less comedic relief than the other picks on this list. Its believable characters and the character development in this movie is what really takes the crown, as it takes you through a grand story in less than one hour and a half . If you’ve ever felt like a series is going too slow, or are just waiting for that lingering romance to become something, this here is your pick for the weekend!

"Aura: Maryuuinkouga Saigo no Tatakai" Trailer (English Subbed)

6. Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru! (This Art Club Has a Problem!)

Stepping outside the comfort zone of high schools, literature clubs and fantasy styled delusions, we arrive at our last, and possibly cutest, pick for this list! This Art Club Has a Problem! is about a middle school art club, where the main character Subaru Uchimaki is trying to find and draw his 2D soulmate.

As expected, this series takes a bigger step into a more innocent and lighthearted world of middle school life, with dynamics between the characters being a bit different than the rest on this list. For starters, the series focuses a bit more on the girl who has a crush on the boy, and this time around the male character is actually skilled at something(!).

So without further ado, This Art Club Has a Problem! is a great series which makes you smile and is perhaps a bit more relaxing to watch than the intense dialogues and battles seen in Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions! Oh, and if you didn’t notice, the anime is still airing! So it’s fresh of the prints for this summer's batch of new anime series!

New for July 2016: Kono Bijutsu-bu ni wa Mondai ga Aru! PV 2 [TBS]

Final Thoughts

When stepping into the world of chuunibyou anime, there are many choices to be found, and in this case it's great as it allows everyone to find something that’s perfect for one's current needs. Watching these series’ lighthearted takes on high school (and middle school) antics is a great way to relax after a hard day of studies or work.

Did you like the recommendations? And is any one of them your favourite? Or do you perhaps have some recommendations of your own? Do leave a comment down below and help others to find more similar anime like Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!!